48 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



It is recorded that Antoine's disgrace arose from a charge brought 

 against him by Christine of Denmark, Duchess of Lorraine, of 

 teaching heresy to her son, or, according to another account, to 

 her husband. In Switzerland he became a friend of the leading 

 Reformers, of Calvin at Geneva, Farel at Neuchatel, and Viret at 

 Lausanne. 



Antoine de Saussure's grandson, Jean Baptiste (1576-1647), 

 removed from Lausanne and settled at Geneva, where he married 

 into another family of exiles, the Diodati of Lucca. 1 



Elie de Saussure, a son of Jean Baptiste, was in 1635 the first 

 of the family to acquire the citizenship of Geneva. His grandson 

 Theodore (1674-1750), the grandfather of Horace Benedict, became 

 a member of the Senate in 1721, and one of the Syndics of the 

 Republic in 1734. He was active in the service of the State, 

 and his name appears frequently in the lists of officials of the 

 time. He built the modest house at Frontenex, where he passed 

 most of his days, and lived till 1750, ten years after his grandson's 

 birth. Horace Benedict's father, Nicolas de Saussure, seems to 

 have been contented to remain a country gentleman. He was 

 elected in 1746 to the Council of Two Hundred, but declined to 

 serve on the Senate. He had something of a scientific turn of 

 mind, but his science was applied mainly to agriculture. It was, 

 however, sufficient to obtain for him the honour of a respectful 

 notice from Cuvier in the Biographic Universelle. His literary 

 remains consist of tracts on The Methods of Cultivation, The 

 Failure of the Wheat Crops, and The Pruning of Vines. His 

 last effort, a treatise on Le Feu, principe de la fecondite des 

 plantes et de la fertilite de la terre, was thought at the time to 

 have some scientific value. His daughter-in-law describes Nicolas 

 de Saussure at the age of seventy-three as always busy with his 



1 Daniel, a brother of Jean Baptiste de Saussure. established a branch of the 

 family at Lausanne, members of which became, in due course, Town Councillors 

 and Ministers of the Gospel, and played a prominent part in the social life of 

 the Canton. About 1725 a Cesar de Saussure wrote letters from England which 

 have been published abroad and in this country. See A Foreign View of England 

 in the Reigns of George I. and George II. (London, 1902). At a later date we find 

 at least two de Saussures of this branch settled in England. The Vaudois branch 

 is now extinct. Another member of the family emigrated to America and had 

 two sons, one of whom was killed in the attack on Savannah in the War of 

 Revolution, while the other became an Under- Secretary of State and signed 

 the first dollar bill issued by the Treasury of the United States. 



